Newcastle scored a objective in every half to beat top-five rivals Chelsea, who had Nicolas Jackson despatched off, 2-0 within the race for Champions League soccer.
Locked on 63 factors apiece within the Premier League desk earlier than kick-off, the sport was billed as a season-defining fixture between two sides able to closing the hole on second-placed Arsenal.
However the opening half was a whole mismatch, evident inside the first 110 seconds when Sandro Tonali ghosted in on the again submit to attain after Romeo Lavia was robbed of possession deep in his personal half.
If Newcastle had been aiming to create some separation between themselves and the competing pack they achieved simply that, boosting their very own hopes of Champions League qualification whereas issuing a hammer blow to Chelsea, who tried to evoke a response within the second interval however had been competing with a participant much less.
Jackson’s elbow on Sven Botman had drawn a straight purple card after VAR despatched John Brooks to the monitor within the thirty fifth minute, the on-field referee upgrading his preliminary challenge of a yellow to purple. Chelsea probed, Marc Cucurella testing Nick Pope and Reece James nodding over from Malo Gusto’s cross. However the day belonged to Newcastle.
Bruno Guimaraes broke Chelsea’s resistance once more late on to cement the win for Eddie Howe’s facet, who’ve now amassed as many factors as champions Liverpool (46) throughout their earlier 21 video games and are in pole place for a top-four end with two matches remaining, rising to 3rd within the standings.
Burn admits nerves affected Newcastle
Newcastle defender Dan Burn talking on TNT:
“We knew how important today was. We said pre-match that the cup final was our biggest game of the season but this was second. It wasn’t pretty but we got the job done so it doesn’t really matter.
“Typically it is arduous when an opposition workforce goes all the way down to 10 since you really feel like it is best to dominate, we did not need to allow them to again in. However the crowd had been a bit nervy and I believe we felt a bit nervy as nicely.
“We’ve got that big game experience in the squad now and I think we did really well to see the game out.”
